About

Mike Biscoe Strategic Marketing Consulta

25 Years' International Marketing Experience

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing with 25 years’ international marketing experience gained within the automotive industry. I am a graduate mathematician and qualified in marketing to MBA level.

During my career, I have worked for Korean, Japanese, Italian and American companies. I have lived in the UK, Belgium and Italy. As well as English, I speak fluent Italian. I have travelled and worked extensively throughout Europe and, at various times, have been a regular visitor to Japan and North America, as well as an infrequent visitor to the Middle East and China.

Over a 25 year career in the automotive business, I progressed from Marketing Analyst to Managing Director:

Marketing Analyst - Daewoo Cars Limited, UK
Product Manager (Fiat) - Fiat Auto Limited, UK
Brand Manager (Alfa Romeo) - Fiat Auto Limited, UK
European Marketing Communications Manager (Alfa Romeo) - Fiat SpA, Italy
Brand and Communications Strategy Manager - Toyota Motor Europe, Belgium
Head of Marketing - Maserati GB Ltd, UK
European Product Manager - Maserati SpA, Italy
Global Marketing Communications Manager - Maserati SpA, Italy
European Marketing Director - Maserati SpA, Italy
Managing Director - Maserati GB Ltd, UK

The last fourteen years of my career have been spent with Maserati which means that I have a thorough knowledge and experience of luxury as well as mass market brands.

I have direct experience of every speciality in the marketing tool box - from research through to advertising. In terms of scale, I have worked on everything from the smallest social media post to a spectacular, 90-second US Superbowl TV campaign, running into tens of millions of dollars. I have worked with some of the biggest creative agencies in the world, such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Wieden+Kennedy, as well as many small, specialist agencies.

The automotive industry provides a thorough training ground for marketers. It is a highly competitive industry with a complex interplay between manufacturer, retailer and customer. Automotive marketing offers a unique mixture of detailed and technical product features combined with a strong emotional appeal, which is further amplified in the performance luxury sector. A car is a highly involved and carefully considered purchase and usually the second most expensive purchase a household will make - a purchase made all the more complex by the prevalence of retail and business finance options in various forms and configurations.

As well as an extensive background in marketing, I have also served as a Managing Director. This gave me direct experience of a much wider range of business and management disciplines, including Sales Management, HR, Retailer/Distributor Management & Development, Aftersales, Finance and PR. So I always view marketing in a broader business context. Nevertheless, the strategy that I successfully employed as a Managing Director was marketing-led as I firmly believe that marketing is the key to long-term business growth and profitability.

The principles of marketing are universal and highly transferrable. However, since leaving Maserati, I have taken the opportunity to broaden my perspective of marketing beyond the automotive industry and to refresh my knowledge and skills. This culminated in studying for a Mini MBA in Marketing in 2020 (equivalent to a first-year MBA marketing course), with the highly-regarded Professor Mark Ritson, and then the follow-up course in 2021; the Mini MBA in Brand Management (equivalent to a second-year, elective MBA course). I set up Marketing Means More and started my consulting career in 2020, working with a B2B company in the environmental services sector to revise their marketing strategy and help them develop their business in Europe and North America.